How do you grow the creative industries? The creative industries are significant to Victoria’s culture, economy and society and central to its future. Creative sectors and occupations account for $23 billion in gross value added, and make up about eight per cent of the Victorian economy. They influence our quality of life and the strength of our communities, and provide a source of inspiration and entertainment. They have wide-ranging impacts that resonate across our culture, society and economy. Creative entrepreneurship is the meeting point of culture, technology and innovation.

Creative entrepreneurship is fuelled by collaboration between cultural institutions, creative businesses, and the technology sector and business sectors. The vibrant startup sector is a unique source of inspiration for creative entrepreneurs to innovate and explore new areas, empowering artists and SMEs to think differently about their work and funding and take advantage of this quickly changing landscape. Some creative start-ups have the potential to grow rapidly such as Melbourne’s RedBubble.com that now sells Artist designed products around the world. In the digital publishing space, startup Tablo is establishing an online Library literary community. Other creative entrepreneurs are working on a far smaller scale and are seeking to find ways of making their artistic practice more sustainable or reach new audiences. An example would be Honor Eastly who developed the Starving Artist Podcast that has charted in the Australian Apple iTunes store. This program will operate a number of streams to support a range of existing and a potential creative entrepreneurs.

Following on from the work REMIX agency has undertaken with ACMI and State Library Victoria we have worked with both organisations to develop an accelerator for the creative industries. The project is a first for Australia and has received widespread media coverage already. It has been designed to assist creative entrepreneurs and companies in building and fast tracking creative enterprises. It incorporates a range of training, mentoring and other support services to help them turn their ideas into reality.

Announced in June 2018, the initiative consists of a series of free Bootcamps to develop the next generation of creative entrepreneurs as well as the main accelerator program which also offers 10 teams $20,000 each to build out their concept. FOUNDY658 is supported by Creative Victoria and you can find more information here.